Arab satellite televisions have rejected US accusations that their coverage from Iraq was biased and incited violence against US troops, saying they just filled a vacuum left by the US media.
Officials from Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera networks, which have reported anti-US attacks in Iraq and aired tapes by ousted leader Saddam Hussein, were responding to remarks made on Sunday by US Deputy Defence Secretary, Mr Paul Wolfowitz. They insisted their reports were accurate and reflected events on the ground. "We know that our coverage in Iraq is balanced and unbiased and we are not instigating any violence," Salah Nejm, Al Arabiya's news director said.
Mr Wolfowitz said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday that the two channels were guilty of "very biased reporting that has the effect of inciting violence against our troops". But Al Jazeera responded by accusing US soldiers of intimidating its staff in Iraq. "In the past month alone, Al Jazeera's offices and staff in Iraq have been subject to strafing by gunfire, death threats, confiscation of news material and multiple detentions and arrests," Al Jazeera said. Al Jazeera's news editor, Saeed al-Shouli, said US anger at his station, which he said "has been building up" since it began airing exclusive tapes by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, was recently stoked by an false attribution to a an Al Jazeera report. "I think what's reaching US forces about Jazeera has been misreported, maybe to scar our image," Shouli said.
He added that US officials were falsely told that Al Jazeera reported that US forces had arrested prominent Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whereas Al Jazeera had actually said US troops only cordoned off Sadr's house.